Abstract
THE first movement towards an organised study of Scottish antiquities dates from the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland was founded in 1780, and with it there came into existence what is now the National Museum. The leading spirit in the enterprise was David Erskine, eleventh Earl of Buchan. If we may trust Sir Walter Scott, who characterised him as “a person whose immense vanity, bordering on insanity, obscured, or rather eclipsed, very considerable talents,” Lord Buchan was not altogether a promising sponsor for the infant science. But at this distance of time we may forgive his eccentricities and honour his memory for the substantial service which he rendered to our common cause.
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MACDONALD, G. The Archæology of Scotland1. Nature 122, 402–404 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122402a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122402a0